Accepting the Challenge

Before Wang Dong arrived, Old Shi was the leader among these interstellar miners.

He had good skills and decent luck. Even if his character was lacking, it didn't affect his standing.

After Wang Dong came, his rapid progress directly threatened Old Shi's position among the miners.

So Old Shi set his sights on Wang Dong.

"Oh, if it isn't our star miner, Brother Dong. Brother Dong, Brother Dong, my mining skills aren't up to par—could you show me how to move?"

Speak of the devil.

A greasy voice suddenly cut into the local area network communication.

In Wang Dong's mind, the image of a greasy middle-aged man surfaced.

A balding crown, thick lips, and a pair of dull, beady eyes.

Ugh.

Wang Dong suddenly felt a bit of resentment toward his own excellent memory.

Why did it have to hold onto such garbage information so firmly?

It was already a mature brain—couldn't it show some initiative and do a regular cleanup?

After a moment's thought, Wang Dong didn't fire back with a sharp tongue.

Neither before crossing into this interstellar era nor in his previous life before rebirth had Wang Dong been the type to excel at verbal sparring.

So faced with this provocation, he chose his usual response.

"Tch, come fight."

If you want war, then war it is—simple as that.

"Whoop, another show's about to start!"

"Come on, come on, I'm taking bets—Old Shi wins at one point five to one, Brother Dong wins at one point one to one!"

"Gambler, you've got a death wish again. Brother Dong beating Old Shi is a crowd favorite—you dare open bets and not fear going broke?"

"No fear, no fear. Worst case, I work this mining trip for free. If Brother Dong goes easy and lets Old Shi win, hehehe, you all know the drill."

"We know, we know—Lishui Mountain Villa, right~"

"Hey, why does Brother Dong always say 'tch' first?"

"No clue—if I knew, I'd be Brother Dong too, ha!"

"Hahaha!"

The comm channel instantly filled with a lively atmosphere.

Quite a few miners had gathered around the Forward Base, waiting for the Asteroid Belt's Clear Window Period.

Seeing Wang Dong give his usual direct response, they all cheered up.

In the cold, lifeless void of space, with a monotonous mining career, it would be unbearable without this optimistic attitude of seizing on anything fun.

Between men, the most direct clashes naturally ignite passion more easily.

With Wang Dong's battle declaration out, Old Shi had achieved his goal, but he still didn't settle down.

He kept rambling on and on.

It wasn't that he was long-winded—he was trying to provoke Wang Dong's emotions through verbal attacks.

Wang Dong simply set his comm channel to display Old Shi's words as text, freeing his ears.

The miners' duels naturally didn't rely on the pitifully weak self-defense laser guns mounted on their mining ships.

Such self-defense lasers couldn't even penetrate G1-class aerospace-grade steel plates—the bare minimum for space travel—and were basically only good for dealing with ultra-small space debris.

Miners, of course, competed in their professional skills.

Like ship control or mining operations.

What Wang Dong and Old Shi were about to compete in was who could pilot their ship deeper into the mining zone.

The Asteroid Belt mining zone was already notorious for its complex spatial conditions.

The deeper you went, the more variables there were, and the more intricate the conditions became.

A mining ship venturing deep risked destruction and death at the slightest misstep.

Of course, no pain, no gain.

The deeper the mining zone, the richer the ore veins it held.

The more remote the place, the better preserved the veins.

As long as you could get in safely, the haul would far exceed what you'd get at the edge.

Being able to reach deeper into the mining zone was a key measure of an interstellar miner's skill.

This kind of competition was also the best way to showcase a miner's courage and technique.

Naturally, it sparked fervent enthusiasm among the miners.

This wasn't the first time Old Shi had provoked Wang Dong into a contest.

Wang Dong knew exactly what was on his mind.

Old Shi had always believed that Wang Dong's consistently superior yields compared to other miners must stem from some hidden knowledge of the mining zone.

Not a pure skill issue.

When it came to ship handling and mining technique, Old Shi didn't think he was any worse than Wang Dong.

Maybe Wang Dong had discovered a large vein-rich area?

Or figured out some pattern in the Asteroid Belt's movements?

Or some other unknown secret?

Old Shi often tailed Wang Dong during his mining runs, deliberately or not, trying to uncover his secret that way.

And he'd throw out provocations from time to time.

Wang Dong was thoroughly sick of this sticky pest.

With his solid skills and mastery of his ship's performance, shaking Old Shi off wasn't hard if he put in a bit of effort.

But even if he shook him off ten times, twenty times.

The next time, Old Shi would be back with that greasy middle-aged man's voice, provoking him again.

Or silently trailing behind Wang Dong.

Like a buzzing fly that just wouldn't go away.

Making you want to pull out its guts, wrap them around its neck a few dozen times, and yank hard!

Ah, peace at last.

In fact, in his past life, Wang Dong had done exactly that.

It was after this very contest that Old Shi vanished from Wang Dong's life forever.

The world did go quiet, but only for a while.

The consequences clung to him like a shadow.

"Same rules. We set off as soon as the Clear Window Period starts, and settle it with our return route maps."

That greasy middle-aged voice again, as Old Shi restated the terms.

"Fine."

Wang Dong agreed readily.

The Asteroid Belt was always in flux.

Because of varying sizes, masses, and positions in different turbulence trajectories, the celestial bodies within the belt moved at different speeds.

And at the outermost edge of the Asteroid Belt, there was often a layer of small and micro-sized bodies forming a Turbulence Belt.

These small and micro-sized bodies orbited the outer belt at high speed.

They posed a lethal threat to thin-skinned, fragile near-space mining spaceships.

If one of these high-speed bodies struck a mining ship, it couldn't take many hits.

If a critical area was damaged, even the escape pods might not guarantee the miners' safety.

So before formal mining began, the Mining Company would organize specialized Operation Ships to clear this outermost turbulence layer as best they could.

Not expecting to completely cut off the turbulence.

Under celestial motion, that would cost far too much.

But "slimming down" the turbulence layer was necessary.

After clearing, the outermost turbulence of the Asteroid Belt would become much sparser, to the point where a brief "clear sky" period would appear for a time.

That was what the miners called the Clear Window Period.

With the help of the Clear Window Period, Wang Dong and the other miners could safely enter the Asteroid Belt mining zone in their near-space mining spaceships.

Monitoring and forecasting the Clear Window Period was also one of the main purposes of the Forward Base.